Last week I speculated that in order for Valve’s Steam digital game service to remain on top, it needed to embrace streaming games just like OnLive and Gaikai offer. However, there is another route Valve could take that I didn’t consider, and it is looking increasingly likely to happen.

Valve is thought to be planning the release of a game console called the Steam Box. The machine would basically offer up access to Steam and all its games in console form on your TV. Not only that, but it would also be compatible with competing services such as EA’s Origin digital games service.

The hardware is based on the Alienware X51 and includes a Core i7 processor, 8GB RAM, and a Nvidia GPU solution. That combination makes it capable of playing every game Steam has to offer, as well as most, if not all future titles for a couple of years at least.

Supporting other digital gaming services would certainly make this a more desirable piece of kit to consumers, but Valve is apparently going further than that. It doesn’t actually want to handle the hardware side itself, and instead wants to have hardware partners who follow the spec and use Steam to run the system. That means we could see Steam Box implementations from multiple companies and therefore some serious pricing competition.

Developers will also be happy if this turns out to be real as they suddenly have a static platform to develop PC games on. Apparently Valve won’t be asking for any licensing fees either, so it’s the equivalent of the App Store for PC games where Valve just take a cut of every sale. But as is typical with gaming PCs, they can expect and prepare for a Steam Box hardware refresh every 4 years or so.

The one big question that remains is how much a Steam Box would cost? Valve already has the games library in place, and finding hardware partners for typical PC hardware won’t be hard. For it to work though, we’d have to see a price point on a par with the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Maybe we’ll see a $250-$300 Steam Box appearing this summer at E3. However, with the Alienware X51 starting at $699, that’s going to be very tough to achieve.